Riding the New NYC 2nd Ave Subway Line

What a year 2016 was! Alongside some very positive personal experiences and news the year brought the debacle of a national election and, just a few weeks ago, during the holiday season, my brother's untimely death. I do want to thank everyone who has sent private notes about my family's loss. I deeply appreciate them.

The other day, to lift my spirits, I decided to visit one of New York City's newest attractions, the Second Avenue subway line. Planned for almost 100 years, with multiple groundbreakings in the 1970s that led to stalled efforts, the line now is now running, having debuted on December 31, 2016.  In truth it's really a "tiny-snippet-of-2nd Avenue" Q train, which no longer heads into Queens; but that tiny snippet, which cuts through one of the City's richest neighborhoods on the Upper East Side, is worthy of praise. The new stations are clean (still), light and airy, like ones you might find in Barcelona or Paris, with public art, and, when I visited on Monday, sightseers were milling about, smiles gracing nearly every face, cameras out for group portraits and selfies. Even some of the MTA workers were grinning happily, perhaps because none of the three new stations had yet become so crowded with commuters--or tourists--that they were almost dangerously unmanageable, as other once new attractions, like the High Line in Chelsea, now are. (I've yet to see to the new 7 Line Hudson Yards-area station, but I hope to soon.)

The vaulted, airy upper floor, 72nd St

The new 2nd Avenue line, though limited in length, should begin to help alleviate the crowding on the 4-5-6 Lexington Avenue line, which I can attest from my many NYPL Schwarzman Research Branch trips is often so packed during evening rush hour that once I've wedged myself into a car I can hardly breathe, let alone move. One argument that I've seen advanced, and which I agree with, is that as the MTA is completing the 2nd Avenue line, which will eventually run from 125th Street in East Harlem to Hanover Street at the southern tip of Manhattan, it should also aim to optimize all other resources to address numerous straphanger requests and needs across all five boroughs. While many of the MTA's stations have undergone renovation and improvements over the last fifteen years, and there seems to be new or ongoing construction on several lines, most notoriously the L, many stations are still in dreadful shape, train service often feels chaotic on the weekends, and the infrastructure in general has not kept up with the City's ever-rising population. On top of this, the price of MetroCards keeps increasing, with inadequate to no subsidies for poor, working-class and even middle class riders, making the subway, one of New York's most vital assets, increasingly unaffordable for millions of riders.

The train to 96th Street

One positive change that has affected nearly all Manhattan stations is enhanced Internet service. I can never connect to the MTA's wireless system--which is probably a good thing, for security reasons--but I was been able to connect to AT&T in all the 2nd Avenue stations, as well as while on the E train yesterday. To tell the truth, I'd rather see air conditioning and a better PA and alarm system in the subways than wireless access, but net access is a welcome addition. One thing I have yet to witness, thankfully, is loud telephone conversations in the cars, but I'm sure those are coming if VOIP service is also universally possible.

Two more New Yorkers

After a short wait I caught the Q train at 14th Street, and rode it up to 96th Street, got off at that station, then rode down to 86th, did the same tour of the station, then finished up at 72nd St. When the train got to 63rd Street I almost got off to photograph that station too, but recalled that it was just a new route for the Q and not a new stop.  Here are photos of the stations and sightseers, with mosaics at 86th Street based on Chuck Close paintings, and mosaics at 72nd Street showing New York's racial, ethnic and social diversity.

A sign announcing the Q's route

In the station

Last stop

Upstairs on the mezzanine level 

The escalators 

The mezzanine at 96th Street

MTA workers with new guides
at 96th Street; the murals in the background

Looking down at the boarding area

Photographs in front of the
unoccupied newsstand 

Leaving the 96th St. station 

The dark gray-green marbled
stairwell and escalator wall (at
all three stations) 

One of Chuck Close's paintings,
of musician Esmeralda Spalding
in mosaic form

The Spalding image up close 

A mosaic version of Close's
portrait of artist Alex Katz 

People gathered around a mosaic
of Close's self-portrait

A view from the mezzanine

Selfie with mosaic of Kara Walker

The boarding area; you can see
how newly laid the tiles are

At 72nd Street

Heading upstairs 

Some of the mosaics at 72nd Street

I believe these are images of real New Yorkers

A crew filming a straphanger with
one of the mosaic portraits

Waris Ahluwalia (one of the few
mosaic portraits I knew)

One of the most talked about mosaic portraits,
featuring a working-class same sex couple 

A mural

One of the MTA workers taking a photo

Happy 2017!

Happy New Year!

Feliz año nuevo

Feliz Ano Novo

Bonne année

Buon Anno e tanti auguri

Kull 'aam wa-antum bikhayr

Aliheli'sdi Itse Udetiyvasadisv

Na MwakaMweru wi Gikeno

Feliĉan novan jaron

聖誕快樂 新年快樂 [圣诞快乐 新年快乐]

Bliain úr faoi shéan is faoi mise duit

Nava Varsh Ki Haardik Shubh Kaamnaayen

Ein gesundes neues Jahr

Mwaka Mwena

Pudhu Varusha Vaazhthukkal

Afe nhyia pa

Ufaaveri aa ahareh

Er sala we pîroz be

سال نو

С наступающим Новым Годом

šťastný nový rok

Manigong Bagong Taon sa inyong lahat

Feliç Any Nou

Yeni yılınızı kutlar, sağlık ve başarılar dileriz

نايا سال مبارک هو

Emnandi Nonyaka Omtsha Ozele Iintsikelelo

Subha Aluth Awrudhak Vewa

Chronia polla

Szczesliwego Nowego Roku

Kia pai te Tau Hou e heke mai nei

Shinnen omedeto goziamasu (クリスマスと新年おめでとうございます)

IHozhi Naghai

a manuia le Tausaga Fou

Paglaun Ukiutchiaq

Naya Saal Mubarak Ho

(International greetings courtesy of Omniglot and Jennifer's Polyglot Links; please note a few of the phrases may also contain Christmas greetings)

RIP Jeffrey Keene

It is with deepest sadness that I share the passing of my younger brother, Jeffrey Keene (December 2, 1970 - December 18, 2016). He was a talented chef, artist and athlete. He will be missed by many. May he rest in peace always.

Here is one of his self-portraits from just a few years ago. We both had dreadlocks at the time.

When I was in St. Louis recently, I took photographs of several of his paintings, posting one on Instagram. Here they are a few. All are acrylic on board. They remind me of the very best of his spirit.

There will be a memorial service for Jeffrey this upcoming Tuesday, December 27, 2016, at 11 am, Day Star Church, 5145 N. Highway 67 (Lindbergh), Florissant, MO 63031.

The family asks that in lieu of flowers, memorials to the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, 4431 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, MO, 63108, or the Humane Society of Missouri, 1201 Macklind Avenue, St. Louis, MO, 63011, or a charity of your choice be considered.

Random Photos

A few recent random photos. Enjoy!

Chinelo Okparanta & Robin Coste Lewis
answering questions after their
superb reading at Rutgers-Newark

A subway rat (do you see it?) 

Evie Shockley introducing Mendi+Keith
Obadike at Penn State Conference
on African American Literature and Language

Mendi+Keith Obadike presenting
their work at CAALL

A musician in Washington Square Park

Painting wrought iron in the West Village

Décollage, SoHo 

With Carter Mathes (left) and Evie Shockley (right)
at the Ark of Bones event at Gallery Aferro
in Newark

My colleague Mark Krasovic, an unidentified woman,
Mrs. Loretta Dumas, Henry Dumas's widow,
and my colleague Christina Strasburger
at Gallery Aferro 

Scarlet and Black: The newly issued
scholarly anthology about Rutgers University's
historical involvement with slavery 

College Avenue, Rutgers (New Brunswick)

At the Westside Theater, before the
start of Othello: The Remix 

Mosaic mural featuring Frederick Douglass
quotation, Midtown 

Post-election Grief & Supportive Post-Its,
Union Square Station tunnel, Manhattan

Those Post-Its

Subway performers 

The Strand Bookstore's last copy (for now)
of Counternarratives; they once had over
100+ copies of the hardcover AND the
paperback. Thank you, readers!

Subway rider, with his 40

Rehab work at the Blue Man Group's
 theater, Astor Place

Cooper Square 

Workers at the increasingly
privatized, zombie urban
hot spot, Astor Place

The famous Alamo Cube, cordoned off
(and now longer movable by passersby)

Bikes and skateboards now
forbidden at the branded, neoliberalized
Astor Place

Counternarratives on Belgian Radio, in a French Journal, and on a British Prize Longlist

A few weeks ago, sound engineer and radio host Alain Cabaux spoke with Emmanuel Requette, from Brussel's Librairie Ptyx (Ptyx Bookstore), hosted a lively, enthusiastic conversation about the French edition of Counternarratives on Radio Campus, based at the Université Libre du Bruxelles.

It would take a while to translate the entire thing and they unfortunately do not provide a written transcript, but it was clear that both Cabaux and Requette enjoyed the book and were sparked to think quite a bit about it, even broaching a few topics that haven't received much discussion in US reviews, on topics such as religion.

If you speak French, you can hear the entire conversation here, as well as music by Matana Roberts and the great Bluesman Robert Johnson. Many thanks to both of them and to my brilliant translator, Bernard Hoepffner and publisher, Éditions Cambourakis, because of whom the book is on Librairie Ptyx's bookshelves. Enjoy! (H/t to James Oscar for telling me about meeting Mr. Cabaux, and his kind comments on the book, too.)


***

Also, in the French journal En Attendant Nadeau, Claude Grimal pens a throrough, praiseworthy review of Contrenarrations, titling it "Sujétion, Liberté et Imagination" (Subjection, Liberty, and Imagination), with the summary that "Le romancier américain John Keene fait preuve dans son Contrenarrations de beaucoup d’ambition, d’érudition et de talent. La force épique de son livre et l’extrême attention qu’il porte à l’écriture sont la preuve d’une foi énergique en la littérature." (Translation: "The American novelist John Keene show evidence of great ambition, erudition and talent in his book Counternarratives. The epic force of his book and his extreme attention to writing are evidence of an energetic faith in literature.")

The review continues in that very positive.  He concludes the review by saying:

L’auteur, qui dote ses personnages d’une remarquable imagination afin de montrer qu’elle est en elle même émancipatrice, est pourvu comme eux de ce don. Il faudrait adapter pour lui les pensées qu’il attribue à Melle LaLa, flottant au dessus du sol, reliée par la bouche à son fil : « je voudrais suspendre la ville entière de Paris ou même la France elle-même à mes lèvres… je cherche à dépasser les limites imposées à moins que je ne les aies placées là, car c’est à cela que je pense quand je pense à la liberté ». Penser à la liberté est un chemin pour les écrivains, autant que pour les assujettis comme le montre, avec un brio acrobatique, les histoires de Contrenarrations.

(The author, who endows his characters with a remarkable imagination in order to show that it is in itself emancipatory, is provided like them with this gift. It would be necessary to adapt for him the thoughts he attributes to Miss LaLa, floating above the ground, connected by her mouth to her wire: "I want to suspend the entire city of Paris or even France itself from my lips...I aim to exceed every limit placed on me unless I place it there, because that is what I think of when I think of freedom." Thinking about freedom is a way for writers, as much as their subjects, as Counternarratives' stories show, with an acrobatic brio.)

Many thanks to Mr. Grimal for this reading, to En Attendant Nadeau for publishing it, and of course, to Bernard Hoepffner and Éditions Cambourakis.

***

Finally, on the other side of the English Channel, or La Manche, depending upon your perspective, a new prize, The Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses, has named Counternarratives to its Longlist! What's the rationale behind this prize? Here's what writer and publisher Neil Griffiths, its founder, has to say.

The winner will be chosen based on two criteria, perfectly expressed on the Galley Beggar website as ‘hardcore literary fiction and gorgeous prose’. 

Eligible publishers will have a maximum of five fulltime paid people working for them. The prize is open to UK and Irish publishers. 

One novel or single author collection of short stories per publisher can be summited in the calendar year. With one wild card entry per judge.

The Times Literary Supplement wrote about this prize, quoting Griffiths:

"Whatever one thinks about awards in the arts, they do tend to attract attention, boost sales, and provide a little momentum – which is always a good thing. And even though the money won’t be Booker or Costa levels, any money is always welcome. And if the prize can include the independent bookshops – as judges and points of sale – then everyone wins".

It also noted that the 9 judges are "Griffiths, his co-chair Marcus Wright, and the booksellers Sam Fisher (Burley Fisher Books, London) Gary Perry (Foyles, London) Anna Dreda (Wenlock Books, Shropshire) Helen Stanton (Forum Books, Northumberland) Lyndsy Kirkman (Chapter One Books, Manchester), Emma Corfield (Book-ish, Crickhowell, Wales) and Gillian Robertson (Looking Glass Books, Fife, Scotland)." The Guardian also wrote it up.

Originally, the Longlist wasn't to be announced until November 30, but it appears to have been moved up. The Shortlist won't be determined until next January, and the prize won't be awarded until March 2017. At the Review 31 site, Mr. Griffiths elaborates on the prize, and writes blurbs about each of the book. Here's the marvelous summary he wrote about Counternarratives, which is the kind of comment you can't pay for!

Fitzcarraldo Editions for Counternarratives by John Keene

Counternarratives is a work of great distinction, a once in a generation addition to short form fiction. It moves the form on; it deepens it. Few works of fiction operate on this kind of intellectual and textural level and still remain rooted in the human experience. Spanning four centuries, many countries, using different narrative forms as inspiration, each story unfolds with a control and wisdom that is startling. When compared to this, most other prose seems oddly ingratiating, as if Keene has decided that to ask for our indulgence is to undermine some fundamental truth being enacted in the stories. Few novels are works of art and few works of art are moral acts – this is one of them. And what’s more it’s a pleasure to read. That this set of stories and novellas has not made every shortlist its eligible for is a travesty.

Here's Mr. Griffith's announcement of the prize:


Whatever happens, it's wonderful for the book and its British publisher to receive some recognition, and many thanks to Mr. Griffiths, his committee, and Fitzcarraldo Editions!

A Brief Note On the Election

The results of yesterday's election, in which Republicans Donald J. Trump and Michael Pence defeated Democrats Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine by winning a majority of Electoral College votes (about 290 so far) versus 230 and despite losing the popular vote, was a difficult day for so many of us. Making it even worse, the obstructionist GOP caucus also retained control of the US Senate and House, and will now have the power to give President Trump whatever he asks for--or they can convince him wants, including a far-right jurist to fill the seat of the late Antonin Scalia. As I told a friend and colleague, we've lived through times as tough as these and worse, and we'll get through it if we stick together, though we'll suffer along the way.

 The first step, though, is acknowledge that Trump's victory occurred, recognizing the many people and things that made it possible, and then not throwing up our hands in sorrow, anger and apathy, and allowing him to steamroll over everyone and everything.

This election reminds me a lot of 2000, only torqued up a few hundred notches. That one also included a Democratic duo winning the popular vote yet losing to the Republican ticket, after over a year of grotesque media malpractice, and lots of liberal handwringing about how the successor of a popular president could lose. Republicans and the media salivated over having an allegedly "compassionate conservative" "businessman" take over the reins of government, promising us reform and a new path. Most voters then, as now, and particularly African American and Latinx voters, rejected it. The true outcome, however, would become clear shortly thereafter when the US suffered through rolling blackouts, the beginnings of warantless wiretapping, a major trading firm (Enron) collapse, and finally, in spite of warnings and red flags, the worst terrorist attacks on US soil on September 11, 2001. I hope and pray that horrors of this magnitude do not befall us under Trump and Pence, though after the experience of that earlier election, I am trying to steel myself for whatever may unfold, and remind myself, organization, coalition-building, dialogue, and resistance, in every way are key.

There were some bright spots in yesterday's election, however: The US Senate will now have the most women of color in its history, with the election of Kamala Harris (CA), Tammy Duckworth (IL), and Catherine Cortez Masto (NV) joining Mazie Hirono (HI), all of whom are progressive Democrats. Also, the Democrat Maggie Hassan eked out a win for the New Hampshire Senate seat, so the Democrats will have 48 votes (46 + Bernie Sanders and Angus King), meaning they'll be able to provide some semblance of a check on Trump, McConnell and Ryan. I'm holding on to this, and to the knowledge that we won't give up, because we cannot, and will keep fighting for a better future for all of us. That's what my ancestors did, what my parents did, and that's what we must do.